


Dancing bones

by jennygotfamous



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: M/M, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-02-27 04:26:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18731569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennygotfamous/pseuds/jennygotfamous
Summary: Post everything (but ignoring the comics).Xander has become a Seer for the PTB and their Champions, but responsibility comes with a slightly fragile sense of sanity. None of them are really that sane anymore anyway.





	1. The War

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is brought to you by my love of StillRose's for [There's Always a Sneer in Vegas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5816275) and the song [The War by Syml](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U8S-uFZrHA)
> 
>  
> 
> This is a WIP and mostly me trying to get back into the swing of writing. Constructive feedback desperately appreciated.

This was not, Xander thought as he glared up at the side of the hulking building, how he’d imagined his ten-year plan would work out. Briefly, he considered saying a giant  _ fuck it  _ and just walking away. Find himself a tiny little corner of nowhere and take up knitting or something. Maybe get a dog. He even shuffled half a step away from the brooding monstrosity in front of him. Then someone brushed his shoulder and he made the mistake of turning towards whoever it was before wincing at the sight and squeezing his eyes shut tightly.

Muttering profanity in every language he knew, he readjusted the strap of his duffle and trudged to the door. 

“Honey, I’m home!” No point trying to be sneaky when the assholes on high made his new status abundantly,  _ painfully _ clear. 

“Xander.” Hey, he’d had worse welcomes. 

“De- err. Angel.”

He kept his gaze just far enough to the right that between the angle and the extra-dark sunglasses he could avoid catching a glimpse of the vampire’s face. Didn’t really need to see it anyway. His imagination did a pretty great job at detailing the vaguely constipated look. 

He should really say something. Or maybe Angel should. One of them should The silence was getting a bit long in the tooth and they were both just standing there. Steeling himself for the familiar nausea he flicked his eyes quickly to the vampire’s face and away before wrenching his head to stare directly at the other brunet.

“Holy shit!” He ripped the glasses off his face. “You look like you! I mean, of course, you look like  _ you _ . But you’re not all phasey. Fuzzy. Everyone’s phasey and fuzzy! I mean, except ghosts. I think. I only met that one guy in Africa and he was definitely a ghost but it could have been a fluke and a  _ him _ thing not a _ ghost _ thing. You’re not dead, are you? Deader.”

Clearly, Giles or someone else from the Council had done a reasonable job of explaining his upgrades because Angel didn’t even blink at the babble or the freaky-looking eye where a socket used to be. In fact, he didn’t really do much of anything for another long silence that Xander was too busy processing this new part of his reality to notice.

“Do you want a drink?” He said eventually and Xander let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Got any Mountain Dew?” The look he got was enough to make him laugh.  _ Huh, look at him laughing with Angel _ .  _ Look Will, I CAN be a grown up _ , “Yeah, figured that was a stretch. Anything full of sugar is great.”

They’d been sitting in a new silence for a few minutes, Xander occasionally taking sips of a generic orange soda while staring at the only face he’d been able to see clearly in several years when a cyclone of cigarette smoke and cursing tumbled through the door.

“C’mon Peaches! Just caught wind of a nest of - Bloody hell! Harris?”

“Hey Spike, long time no see. Don’t suppose Angel here mentioned I was coming?” He said, not moving his eyes from their current scrutiny and he really had to hand it to Angel; the other man was just blinking back quietly, not really disturbed by the staring contest in the least.

“Mentioned you’d be popping in. Not th’ new accessory though.”

Oh. Right. Freaky-looking eye strikes again. “What’s it look like to you?”

“Sort of there but not. Like two photos superimposed over each other.” Said Angel, looking carefully. 

He was too busy thinking over the idea that maybe his eye had the same kind of phasey-fuzzy look that people had to notice Spike had moved and was now standing smack bang in his field of vision. And  _ his _ face wasn’t doing the phasey-fuzzy thing either and what the hell was going on?

Spike, it turned out, did not handle the staring with anywhere near the quiet acceptance that Angel did. “Alright there, whelp? Know I’m a tasty morsel but no need to be quite so blatant.”

“You’re not phasey either! Is it a vamp thing? Except I’ve seen plenty of vamps since the eye… thing… and they’ve all been phasey. And man I really need to come up with a better way to explain this  _ thing _ the powers that be pains in my ass gave me ‘cause I’m starting to lose my damn mind -”

“Too bloody late from the looks of it.”

Xander glared at the peroxide blond for a moment and the glare quickly turned into an investigative stare. There was something niggling at the edges of his consciousness and he focused in on it until Spike’s face  _ did _ start doing the phasing thing. 

Concentrating long enough to understand what the hundred or so future permutations of Spike were trying to say all at once was not his favourite thing to do. In fact, given the choice, he’d pretty much take a backyard root canal sans anesthetic over his current situation. But he didn’t really have a choice so he grit his teeth against the demanding nausea currently trying to claw its way up his throat until he finally got enough of the picture to understand.

Dropping his gaze to the table in front of him he took an unsteady breath and groped blindly for the can he knew was there somewhere. Grunting in thanks when a pale hand wrapped his fingers around it, he took a sip then bolted to his feet when the nausea stopped threatening and started doing.

There was a special kind of gross reserved for feeling soda that was still cold and slightly fizzy making its way back up. Spitting in the sink he was somehow in front of he squeezed his eyes shut.

“You two better hurry up, that nest needs clearing or tomorrow they’re going to rob the kindergarten down the road, and they’re not after the finger paints.”


	2. Where is my mind?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: drug use. Inferences of child abuse (not Xander)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by my love of [Repossession by Lazuli](http://www.excessant.com/excess/repossession.htm) and the [Remix of Where is my mind? by Yoav & Emily Browning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZMrp8yDM78)
> 
> _Given a cursory once over and totally not even in the realm of beta'd._

Six. Weeks. 

The whelp had been here six bloody weeks and he hadn’t said a damn word. Oh he’d babbled plenty about anything that didn’t mean much. Went on for twenty sodding minutes straight about the wonders of active meditation or some such rot he’d learnt while visiting the wolf somewhere near Vancouver. Was nice to hear he’d settled down with a bird and was even about to pop out a couple of pups of his own, but it wasn’t really what Spike had been angling for, news-wise. Any time he’d try to get the boy onto something actually interesting - like say how he’d ended up with some weird amber eye that seemed to float above the socket - and he’d clam up.

Spike lit another cigarette and watched the subject of his current musings trudge down the stairs from wherever he’d holed up. Like bloody clockwork he was. Every three to four days the man would start to coil like a spring. He’d abandon the garden he’d slowly been wrangling back into line from the inner courtyard Spike didn’t even know the hotel possessed, tromp into the function room Peaches had converted into a training space and start some ridiculous yoga routine. Though, to his credit, he seemed to prefer doing it while listening to some rather good heavy metal. Leave it another day or two - less if he skipped the yoga - and he was practically vibrating with tension. 

The blond watched as Xander made his way across the foyer with grim determination, snagging a worn coat from the counter.

“How’s it work, then?” Spike asked on an exhale.

“Monkey see, monkey tell, monkey go back to bed.” The brunet said as he slipped on the dark glasses that hid his here-but-not eye.

“Figured that much, git. More interested in the how, aren’t I?” He caught the edge of his brooding sire’s shoulder in the doorway and stiffled a snort. Figured. The ponce was just as curious about the familiar and entirely different Scooby as he was. He was just too lily-livered to ask.

“That’s the thing about seeing, you generally do it by looking. Unless there’s some wacky vampire secret no one’s let me in on I’m pretty sure you’d be familiar by now.” One of the boy’s hands was pressing into the top of the counter with a little too much force to be casual. 

“Right,” He said, flicking the cigarette butt into a corner and smirking because he could  _ see _ Angel twitch from his hiding spot, “I’d best come with you then. Make sure you don’t end up as a midnight snack for some beastie.”

He’d expected a bit of a fight. At the very least a few choice barbs before he managed to get his way. But this version of Xander was different in the strangest ways. That tanned hand pressed so strongly into the counter that the tips were white. Then he let out a sudden breath and just… nodded.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Xander wasn’t sure why Spike suddenly seemed so invested in his weekly strolls through downtown LA. Nor why he hadn’t just followed him after he’d gone out like Angel had done the first time. He had a feeling that Spike would have least done a better job of it.

The nausea was making itself very much known. This time it had apparently brought along its old friend vertigo and he was beginning to wish he had visions the way Giles had explained other Seers did.

Fishing the slightly worn metal cigarette case out of a jacket pocket he couldn’t help the snort of laughter at the vampire’s sound of surprise. Holding a joint between his lips he paused the ground-eating pace he’d learnt somewhere around Holland long enough for it to catch on the flame of a slim lighter.

Keeping the smoke long enough in his lungs to feel its cool tendrils start to wrap around the queasiness he exhaled slowly, “What’re you doing out here, Spike?”

Huh, not what he’d actually meant to ask, but it was a nice enough distraction from his permanently shifting reality that he didn’t bother to try and take the question back.

“‘M curious.” Just call him Xander Harris, sideshow extraordinaire!

“‘Bout?” He took another big hit and felt a little of the tightness in his belly unwind enough that he could begin focusing on the world around him.

“At the mo’? You mostly.” The combination of the last of the weed Oz had given him and the weird almost friendly conversation were just distracting enough that the horror flying by his eyes at a million miles an hour felt just removed enough... for once. 

“I am known to,” Deep breath and a pause while he dragged his eyes away from the child’s face and the dozen or so permutations all screaming for help, “to be, um, an international man of mystery.” 

He wasn’t sure if Spike noticed his hands shaking or if the vampire was just in a chatty mood but suddenly he was off, telling a weaving tale of meeting this or that incarnation of Bond and, one time, a demon who could do a passable impression of all of them at once. Something about extra vocal chords. 

They were walking again, the blond’s shorter strides somehow managing to keep up with the fast pace Xander set without having to look like he was doing more than saunter. They weren’t going anywhere specific. He’d learnt pretty early on that it was easier to catch fragments, put them together a piece at a time. So he walked. A lot. 

Spike was now going on about at least two of the Bond Girls being demons. His joint was almost done and his hands were shaking badly enough that he couldn’t bring it to his mouth. Wasn’t doing much good anyway. He threw the butt into a nearby gutter before flinching away from the man who walked past them, his fuzzy face a Rorschach of bloody ruin that screamed through various renditions of a torn throat.

“Want to ruin some demon’s night? Follow that guy - must be vamps around nearby. Or something else that enjoys munching on human necks.” It might not have been the reason the Powers had demanded he See but he was a multi-tasking Scooby. Also right now? They could kiss his ass. 

There was a slightly warm feeling in the pit of his stomach when Spike hesitated, obviously unsure if he could make it back to the Hyperion by himself. ‘Course that might have been the weed, “Go - I’m headed back now anyway.”

He waited until the vampire rounded the corner after the man who didn’t know he was walking to a rather gruesome death before losing the contents of his stomach in a conveniently placed trashcan. 

Shit. This one was going to be bad.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by my love of [With or Without by Whichclothes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/82245) and [Truth by Seether](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBXkWVZD4qE)

Xander threw a steak in the pan and listened to it sizzle as he studiously ignored the curious looks the brunet vampire was throwing his way. His stomach was hollow given his previous makeout session with the trash can and he knew he’d need to eat more when they got back but this would do for now. 

If nothing else, the fact that the silence between him and Angel was comfortable was a clear sign of the impending apocalypse.  _ Huh _ . At some point in the last month and a half, they’d become people who could sit in silence without it being awkward. Not just when there was an apocalypse looming. But… all the time.

Poking the edge of the steak to make sure it was seared enough he pinched an edge and flipped. “Want one?”

“No, I don’t… eat.”

“Why is that? Spike does all the time. Or he did when he lived with me anyway, dunno about now. He was always munching down on basically every snack of mine he could get his undead hands on.”

“Xander.” Apparently, they were not only the type of people who could have comfortable silences, but they were also the people who could have an entire conversation with a single word.

“Yeah. Just… There’s some stuff I asked Giles to let me tell you and I kind of only want to go through the whole thing once so can we just wait for Spike to get back ‘cause he'd put itching powder in my bed or something if I tell you and not him. Hey, I don’t suppose your blood guy can also deliver meat?”

“Uh. He has contacts with most of the butchers on this side of town so probably. Why?”

Xander ignored the question in favour of his own as he turned back to slide the steak from the pan to a plate, “When’s your next delivery due?”

“Tomorrow.  _ Xander. _ ” Oops. Turns out they were the kind of people who could one-word conversations but they were still Angel and Xander and the Xander in this equation had pushed the Angel patience a little too far. 

“It’s umm... Part of that whole discussion thing we need to do but safe to say my required red meat intake a bit higher than your average Scooby.”

Apparently, Angel kept a stock of patience in reserve because after rubbing his forehead for a moment he just said, “I’ll get Rhys to add steaks to the delivery. How much do you want?”

“That kind of depe-”

“Bloody hell, Harris I should take you for walks more often. That was  _ fun! _ ” 

Xander wondered if Spike was able to walk through a doorway without making a production of it then decided it didn’t really matter when the grin the blond gave him was so infectious he couldn’t help but smile back.

Snatching a knife and fork from a drawer he began to carve chunks off the steak, knowing that once they got into the next round of buttmonkey-ing for the Powers he’d likely lose his appetite even though there was a black hole where his stomach should be.

“Spike, sit down,” Angel said pointedly.

Xander and Angel may have gotten to the point of one-word conversations, but it turned out Angel and Spike could have entire conversations without words at all. Xander watched with interest at the play of expressions across both vampire’s faces, feeling strangely like he was watching a tennis match as his eyes pinged back and forth. He wondered what it would be like to have that much history with someone. 

Whatever conversation they’d been having was clearly over because the blond was slumping into a chair and staring expectantly. At Xander. Well, he had said he’d wanted to tell them both at once.

Steak polished off in record time even for him and damn, even  _ he _ didn’t need the no-talking-conversation thing to realise they were both expecting him to spill the metaphorical beans already.

“Ok. Um. So Giles mentioned the whole Seer thing. And I’m guessing you’ve figured out from the freaky eye thing that my visions are a bit different. Did Giles tell you how I ended up a Seer?”

“Xander.” Waddaya know, Angel could do the constipated voice thing to go with the constipated look thing.

“No, look, it’s actually important. I promise.” He said, index finger playing in the bloody juices left on his plate. 

“Nah, whelp. Just said you were a Seer now and the Powers had thrown you in the Poof’s direction.”

_ Oh goody.  _ He got to tell the  _ whole _ story then.

Even trying to keep it as brief as possible it took him almost an hour. His voice broke while he explained the six minutes he’d been dead that felt like six days. Broke again when he explained that Cordelia had been the one to meet him, explain on behalf of the Powers what they were offering. A soda appeared by his hand when he had to stop for a minute and he nodded his thanks without looking up. 

It was easier once he moved on to explain the demon they’d merged with him. Xander tried to explain how his vision manifested - like overlapping futures that all played out at once across every human and demon face he came into contact with. Every person except the two of them. Even touched on the yoga, the only way his permanently busy brain could manage something close to the meditation Oz preferred as a coping mechanism for his own brand of demon. He skirted around the edges of the side effects caused by teasing apart the most likely future from a hundred shifting faces, but thankfully neither vampire seemed to care if he needed a joint every now and then to deal with it. He supposed a little pot was probably tame when faced with centuries of murder and mayhem.

“So yeah, died, got demon’d up, un-died. Spent a bit of time being bug-fuck crazy working out the demon shtick and then made my way here. Xander Harris, reporting for apocalypse duty.” He summarised, taking another sip of the now room temperature soda.

“Donut boy got an upgrade, hmm?” And thank god for Spike - not a phrase he ever thought he’d think but turns out he really needed the normalcy of snark.

Of course, needing the normalcy didn’t mean he didn’t want to get one up on the blond whenever he could. Knowing he was going to need to show them a whole lot more to stop the latest brand of evil he figured  _ what the hell. _ Letting a little of the demon out, he watched both men start when his other eye bled from brown to the same amber as the phasey one. 

“Part human, part Upu, all donut boy.” He said around a grin slightly sharper than it had been.

“Upu?” Angel was looking a little shell shocked, but he hadn’t freaked out and tried to kill Xander like the baby slayer he’d been with when he did the dying thing, so that was a plus.

“Yeah. Egyptian apparently. Kinda wolfy, hence the convalescing with Oz.”

“You don’t uh…” Ok so he and Angel may both be trying to work their way towards less animosity but it was still fun watching the normally confident vampire trip over his words.

“Peaches here wants to know if you catch a case of the fuzzies at the full moon.” Spike eventually translated.

“Nah, no moon related dramas. I do uhh... tend to need more red meat though. Upu are carnivores. Normally it’s pretty standard but if I need to change my metabolism ramps up to a hundred or something.” Xander glanced up to find nothing but curiosity in both and he let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Change?” Angel asked, apparently really sticking to that one-word conversation thing.

“Yeah, got more than a funky eye out of the demon deal. Speaking of which,” He pressed away from the table and went rummaged around in Angel’s office for a few minutes before snatching up the two axes he’d seen earlier and handing them over. 

“Bad guys of the week called - basic kind of hack and slash job down near the water before they manage to do something funky with an altar. Ever notice there’s always an altar? Dunno what this brand of evil is  _ called _ but behead ‘em, make sure they can’t get to their head for at least a minute or two and they’re toast. I’m coming with.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by my love of [Hunt-Brother by Ladycat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/206351) and [49 Candles by Missy Higgins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db6lg9b_F-k)

Xander knew he shouldn’t follow the scent. If he had been less off centre he would have ignored it. Probably wouldn’t have even noticed it was there. 

Maybe. 

But right now, in the quiet hour or so before dawn after a fight he was finally strong enough to do damage in and having only just managed to push his Upu form down enough for his normal twenty-something body to make a reappearance... Right now every sense was ramped up to somewhere around a million and he needed to find that smell and roll in it. 

His skin felt tight, every nerve ending screaming. He was pretty sure with everything heightened as it was he could smell the damn ocean from his room if he really tried. Should probably try that one day and report back to Giles for posterity or something. 

Most days he thought he’d got nothing more than weird visions, a freaky eye, and his own wolfy version of a game face (oh my!) out of the whole dying and un-dying deal. Then there were times like right now. Moments when he had, almost without thinking, tracked a scent across two floors and down half a dozen winding hallways until he came to a stop outside a partly closed door. 

Moments when he could pick out the almost nonexistent reflection of pre-dawn light on gelled brunet hair as it moved slowly between… _oh!_ _Huh. Always kind of expected that the other way around_.

His skin got impossibly tighter and he knew his eyes were practically glowing as he stared, locked in place by the sight of the two vampires in the room. 

There was nothing human about their movements. Muscles under a tattoo he’d heard about but never seen himself moved like they weren’t connected to bone. He found himself exhaling in time with the blond on the bed as growled epithets made their way to his ears. 

Something urged him further into the room. 

It whispered to him to mark those expanses of pale flesh with tooth and nail. He wanted to watch bruises bloom under his fingers. Needed to drag blood to the surface and let the coolness of it roll down his throat with a taste he knew would be better than the warmest honey mead. 

He wanted to roll himself in the scent of them until he was coated in a film every body fluid he could drag from both of them. Ached to cover those bodies in his own scent until he couldn’t distinguish one from the other. His jaw twitched with the desperate need to catch cool skin in his teeth and feel the muscles underneath turn pliant.

The need bore down on him and forced the nails of his clenched fits into his palms. The scent of his own blood jerked him back and away just as Spike’s own demon-yellow eyes met his own.

He stuttered out something with enough vowels to resemble an apology and fled.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter brought to you by [Bitter Casualties by seductivembrace](https://archiveofourown.org/works/485960) and [Biting Down by Lorde](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k1UvozPeTw)

He’d known the cost when he’d changed into his full Anubis-esque Upu form to help Angel and Spike take apart the latest lot of Very Evil Dudes (™) and he didn’t begrudge past-Xander his decisions. At least not _exactly_. Present-Xander completely understood past-Xander’s logic, but that didn’t make the fallout any easier.

Normally it only took him a day or so before his senses slowed down to something closer to human after shifting. It was coming up on a week and he could still hear that damn mouse who’d made its home in the wall two floors below him so normally was pretty much shot to hell.

The need that had clawed at his belly when Spike’s eyes met his own hadn’t settled either. If anything it seemed to have decided the base of his spine was a great place to be and had set up camp. Thankfully, neither vampire had sought him out to comment on his new voyeuristic tendencies. They’d actually both been really good about respecting the fact that he was pretty obviously avoiding them until he could give that feeling in his spine an eviction notice.

Whatever trickster excuse for a god that watched out for half-Upu ex-Scoobies was clearly feeling charitable because the objects of his rather unwelcome need were currently out dealing with the big hairy thing he’d left them a note about earlier in the day so Xander could training room.

A snort made its way between his lips as he tried to hold his current pose despite the fatigue demanding he give it a rest already. A _note_. Because he was a teenager again now. Scratch that, even teenage him wasn’t that much of a coward. An idiot and a fool, yes. Cowardly enough to literally hide in his room when he knew the vampires were home? Nope. That was all adult-Xander.

Forcing himself to move into the next pose as slowly as possible he briefly considered calling Oz. Another snort forced its way out. Oh yeah, that conversation would go over like a brick to the head.

_“Hey Oz, you ever get the urge to sink your teeth into Emma and see what she tastes like under the skin?”_

_“Yeah, Xan, totally. Happens every now and then. We just whip out the spray bandage when we’re done and it’s copacetic. Always good to put a towel down though. Blood’s a pain to get out of the sheets.”_

_“Thanks, man, great advice. Gotta go, this hankering for vampire flesh won’t solve itself.”_

_“No worries. Oh hey, let me know if you need more weed. I know a guy down your way.”_

_“Will do - say hi to Em for me.”_

A third snort for the ridiculous imaginary conversation and he gave up on yoga in favour of plain old push-ups.

“‘M not sure those noises are strictly yogi approved.” A familiar voice said from the doorway.

_Shit_.


End file.
